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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26336986">「Chase; 追」</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuren/pseuds/yuren'>yuren</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, M/M, Some Swearing, timeskip!karasuno first years spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:54:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,424</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26336986</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuren/pseuds/yuren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On Fridays, you chased Kageyama Tobio.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kageyama Tobio/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>「Chase; 追」</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hi.”</p><p>“Hey.”</p><p>His eyes roam your features, from your slightly widened eyes to your just barely contained smile to your fidgeting hands. You look unsure whether or not to bring them up into a hug – is he still okay with these?</p><p>You take a few moments to drink him all in. He’s grown taller. The muscles acquired over years of dedicated training fills out his height well. He now carries his height and built with an air of simple confidence and maturity that haven’t been there before. His face has long lost its adolescent softness, and his eyes are even sharper, more discerning, seeing with more clarity. Gone is the permanent scowl. A smile plays at his lips, only slightly, as he looks at you look at him.</p><p>You don’t think he’s ever looked at you so casually before in the seven years you’ve known him.</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>The first year you knew him, you spent Fridays after school chasing him from the classroom to the gymnasium, shouting all the way to remind him that the two of you had shared cleaning duties. At first, you had been sure that he was playing hooky and was deliberately making you try to run at his ridiculous speeds. What else were you to think? He was never awake to take the assignments you handed out; he gave the most nonsensical and forced commentaries during group projects; and he had the ugliest expression whenever you had to remind him for the umpteenth time to stop yelling at the redhead in the next class over during lunch breaks.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But by the third week in a row of your weekly after school chases, you were genuinely confused as to why he still attempted to skip cleaning duties when you were just going to show up at the gym, march up to Sugawara-senpai, get the vice captain’s permission, and drag the club’s feral setter back to the classroom.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You confronted him during lunch on the fourth Friday, demanding that he stopped this dumb plan of his that clearly wasn’t working. He stilled for a few moments, staring at you with his face scrunched up in the same confused expression he had whenever the English teacher asked him about “how his weekend was.” Then out of nowhere, his face violently flushed into the deepest red. You didn’t think you’d ever seen such an exact human replica of a tomato before.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I-I-I wasn’t trying to skip! I’m…sorry. I just…forget.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That was when you learned that Kageyama Tobio was an airhead in all regards but volleyball.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Somehow, in the second year, you spent your Friday lunches remedying that. Or at least trying to. You had switched into Class 2-4 that year, and was luckily paired up with a normal responsible cleaning partner. But Kageyama Tobio’s airhead nature had a way of circuiting back into your life. After the first round of English quizzes came back, his teammate, the snarky blond glasses guy who also happened to be your co-class representative, almost grovelled at your feet to have you tutor his “dumb as a fucking rock teammate.” It turned out that the prospects of securing a second national qualification for Karasuno had absolutely zero impact on the vice principal’s attachment to school rules.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You had asked Tsukishima why couldn’t he or Yacchan do it, and he gave you the blankest, most soulless look. “You’re his handler now.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That Friday, Yachi cried when you showed up to their tutoring sessions. She actually did grovel at your feet, blessing you for taking Kageyama Tobio off her hands.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That was when you learned that Kageyama Tobio was indeed dumb as a fucking rock in all regards but volleyball. But he was motivated to learn.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>By the third year, you had become familiar with most of Kageyama Tobio’s ways of life. You spent Monday lunches going over homework with him and the rest of the VBC third years. On Tuesdays, you helped them translate English commentaries and analyzed journals for volleyball research purposes. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, Kageyama Tobio did his supplementary assignments under your supervision while you sorted paperwork with your club. (You had by then convinced him that it wouldn’t hurt for Japanese people, in particular Japanese people who are going to become world class professional volleyball players, to learn English.) Your club members had gotten used to their president coming into these lunch meetings five minutes late with the semi-famous volleyball genius trailing behind, his dairy choice for the day and an “English For Dummies” textbook in hand.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Three months before the end of your high school careers, the VBC third years and you were sitting in the gymnasium as per routine. Friday lunches were for catching up on work, sleep, and sanity. You all savoured this slice of haven away from the creeping, looming, impending reminder of endings, uncertainty, and beginnings. The five members of the VBC have long ascertained what they would do post graduation. Their wills have been set since that one decisive last game of their first year. The Friday following that game had been the first cleaning session in which Kageyama Tobio had cleaned everything properly for once.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Those afternoons now seemed so far yet so close. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were to attend the same university in Miyagi. Yachi made the bold but fitting move to Tokyo. Hinata had had a wild dream planted since his first year, and while you all agreed that the redhead was probably insane, he was also on the right track of insanity. Most unsurprisingly, Tobio had been widely scouted. You and Tsukishima – with varying degrees of gentleness – had both advised him that playing volleyball without the college caveat was probably for the best.</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>“Tobio.”</p><p>“Y/n.”</p><p>“What are you thinking about?”</p><p>He studies you. You’ve grown a tad taller, just a tad. You have matured into your body and mind, your stance relaxed and steadier, eyes clearer, and smile easier. He likes it, he decides. He likes the simple maturity and confidence in your expression, though he’s sure that if he prods a bit, you will still yell at him with the flustered tomato look he likes on you. Though, even after four years, what he likes the most is that your eyes still hold the exact same kindness and depth that once left him excessively red in the face and thinking that he would rather receive Oikawa-san’s serve to the stomach a hundred times over than to feel whatever the fuck was going on in his stomach again.</p><p>“Butterflies.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Butterflies. I’m thinking about butterflies.”</p><p>You burst into laughter, partly from the nonsensical answers that have not changed despite four whole years in the V League and partly from the giddiness bubbling over from seeing Kageyama Tobio again.</p><p>“You give me these butterflies.”</p><p>You choke as he regards you with an amused grin. Oh boy, Kageyama Tobio definitely knows what he is saying. And this time, you are ready.</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>“I’ll be here.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’ll be here. So go chase whatever you want to chase.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You mean ‘whoever’?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No, I said ‘whatever’, dumbass.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Huh. Okay.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m serious. So, just go for it.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That routine Friday, in the second gymnasium, moments before you would commit to a university halfway around the world, you learned that Kageyama Tobio was a dumb as a fucking rock airhead in almost everything but volleyball. But he was learning to love.</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>You take a deep breath.</p><p>“Me too.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You also give me butterflies.”</p><p>This time, he is the one to break. But this time, he knows that he would take any amount of Oikawa-san and Ushijima-san’s serves to the stomach to feel the butterflies once again.</p><p>“And I’m done chasing,” you continue, “I’m done chasing what I wanted four years ago, and after seven years, I sure as hell am done chasing these damn butterflies.”</p><p>You look him straight in the eyes.</p><p>“So I’ll chase you. Again.”</p><p>Despite the consecutive blows, Kageyama Tobio grins.</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“Yup. I’ve caught everything else. It’s just you left.”</p><p>Kageyama Tobio laughs. You are the most dedicated handler he’s had.</p><p>“You’ve already caught me. Seven years ago.”</p><p>You are sure your smile is about to split your face.</p><p>“So, let me meet you halfway.”</p><p>On whatever the fuck day it is, you are in Kageyama Tobio’s arms. You learn that he is, thank god, no longer dumb as a fucking rock. He’s still an airhead in almost all regards but volleyball. But Kageyama Tobio is also deeply, undeniably, and absolutely in love with you.</p>
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